Merced County hits 155 total COVID-19 deaths. But positive tests see decrease
One death due to COVID-19 was confirmed Friday by Merced County Department of Public Health, bringing the local total to 155 deaths reported during the pandemic.
Three residents have died during the past seven days. Still, that’s a marked decrease from just a few months ago, when the number of deaths per week were often in the double digits.
The latest individual who died was a woman, age 65 or older. It has not been reported whether the woman had underlying health conditions prior to her death.
Plus, 26 additional laboratory confirmed COVID-19 infections were reported Friday in Merced County. To date, 9,465 residents have tested positive for the virus.
Of those total cases, 316 are presumed to be active — an increase of seven active cases since Thursday. Active cases are an estimate based on the number of new laboratory confirmed infections within the past two weeks. Active cases have recently been on an upswing.
Up until Friday, Merced County’s testing positivity was rising as well. Testing positivity decreased to 3.4% on Friday from 4% Thursday. The decline represented the lowest percentage since Oct. 14.
Testing positivity indicates the percentage of residents screened for COVID-19 over the past week who test positive. It is one of the data metrics looked at by the state to determine how much a county’s local economy can reopen. Generally, higher testing positivity means less businesses may open.
County Public Health urges more COVID-19 tests
The drop in positivity came after County Public Health this week warned that under the state’s reopening rules, the county is at risk of reverting back to stricter nonessential business closures because of its local COVID-19 data.
Merced County is currently subject to the “red tier,” which is the second strictest of state-define reopening tiers. If its coronavirus statistics worsen for two straight weeks, the county will be reverted to the tier with the most stringent closures.
County Public Health officials said the possible backslide is due to a lack of residents’ being tested for COVID-19, leading to an increase in positive cases being counted compared to negative ones.
All residents, regardless of whether they feel ill or have been in contact with a known positive case, are urged by County Public Health to get tested every two weeks if possible to ensure they’re not ill — and to bring down testing positivity.
Some county residents have questioned the request, asking why they would get tested if they are healthy.
“This is basically to truly know what the presence of COVID is in our community, especially because it can have such high rates of asymptomatic people being COVID positive,” County Public Health Supervising Epidemiologist and Operations Chief Dr. Kristynn Sullivan told the Sun-Star.
“In an ideal world, every Merced County resident would be tested every two weeks,” she said. “That is the goal of the ask.”
Sullivan said the county has shifted from response testing to surveillance testing. At the beginning of the pandemic, when testing resources were more scarce, response testing was the focus. Tests were limited mainly to individuals showing certain COVID-19 symptoms or those who were exposed to a positive case.
This meant testing positivity was high, since those getting tested were more likely to have contracted COVID-19.
Now, with surveillance testing as the focus, the goal is to test as many individuals as possible to provide a clear picture of the state of COVID-19 locally — and locate asymptomatic cases. Residents who are tested for COVID-19 who have no reason to believe they may have the virus do not need to isolate while waiting for results, Sullivan said.
Sullivan acknowledged that some residents may be resistant to the notion of getting tested every two weeks.
“There’s a lot of COVID fatigue, and there’s definitely a lot of testing fatigue,” she said. “We can’t force people to test.”
Conversations with the state about its tier system are ongoing, Sullivan said. County Public Health gives input, but ultimately the state makes the calls, she said. This means that for now, increased testing is the easiest fix for Merced County to remain open.
“The last thing we want to do is bounce back between tiers,” Sullivan said.
Free testing is available to residents at the county’s two state-funded sites at the Merced County and Los Banos fairgrounds.
More on latest COVID-19 numbers
Also on Friday, active hospitalizations of residents due to severe COVID-19 cases decreased by one patient to 21. Six patients are hospitalized locally, while the remaining majority are being cared for at outside facilities.
Active COVID-19 outbreaks remained stable at seven. Locations are cleared from the active outbreak list when no new cases in connection to the workplace are confirmed for two weeks.
As of Friday, 61,918 Merced County residents have been tested for coronavirus. Of those, 15.5% of results have returned positive.
In California, there are 886,865 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 17,262 deaths.
